Fluency

[corvus]

I've been messing around with Erik, working on his fluency for "down" and "sit". I've been having fun finding ways to ask for these behaviours that challenge him. So far he's mastered down facing away from me, facing away from his dinner, out of sight of me and his dinner, side on to his dinner, while he's walking beside me, while he's running beside me, stationary from a distance when he's facing me, when he's walking slightly in front of me facing ahead of me, while other dogs are bouncing around him at the beach, in any sequence of behaviours I could think of, for any reward he's ever wanted, and today I managed to find a new one: downing while balancing on the top of a log.

I've got moving away from me and while moving at a distance from me lined up, but I'm not wildly creative about these things. Has anyone tricked their dogs by dropping a cue into an unexpected situation that I haven't mentioned? I wanna steal your ideas.

[RallyValley]

Down when you are lying on the floor, sitting, jumping up and down?

Down from a sit/stand/when he is running...

[The Spotted Devil]

I remember Ptolomy challenged us to do a formal recall facing away from our dogs. Easy for a regular recall but not easy for a dog that has been taught a formal front!

Try standing on a chair and asking your dog to drop

[Vickie]

Try askng him

while you are tugging with another dog

while you are feeding another dog

while you are holding another dog

from the other side of a barrier/door/gate

with your eyes closed

try getting some friends & strangers to ask him.

[chran]

How about down when he's in ankle deep water? make it clear that it's down, not drown

Mine does it on a big puddle - ankle deep for a terrier - complete with muddy splash, it was quite a sight!

[corvus]

Ooo, great ideas. From a chair! I think that'll trick him. He's a bit leery of water, but he'll do them on wet sand and I had him hold one as a wave was rushing in towards him once. He's such a good boy. He always runs away from those waves, but he held it until I could release him and got clear just in time. He will do it in shallow water if the water is still. OH thinks it's hilarious to take Kivi into the river and tell him to sit. It's the favoured way to wash his butt.

[The Spotted Devil]

Something I do with my dogs is to wait until they are in the middle of some serious wrestling and playing and then ask for a sit - in the beginning I rewarded with food but now I more often use a release to play again. They both are super enthusiastic about the play and the out. Heaps of fun!

[Jigsaw]

Sit/down at the beach with the waves rolling in! I think it was Susan Garrett who gave commands while standing on her head?!! I usually try and mix up from facing away, lying down, sitting down, even just turning my head. In the middle of talking to someone else. Good reminder for me to put back on my practise list.

[LabsRock61a]

Hi,

Longtime lurker, first time poster

Here are some ideas for testing your Sit and Down cues, from Ian Dunbar, in kind of a "challenge" format. I especially like the "sit on my hand" exercise, which my Lab managed with a really weird look on his face !

http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2001/sittest.htm

I also have asked him to sit in water, and even while he is swimming (to get him to stop). It worked, but he is a particularly literal kind of chap.

[luvsdogs]

After going to my 1st conference back in Feb 2000, Ian Dunbar told us to try getting our dog to sit from a down, with us lying down with our head at the dogs outstretched feet, as mentioned above. That night I tried it with April & she did it straight away, being a chicken I never asked her to do it again as I didn't want to spoil the exercise.

I should try it with Tilba as she's not as well obedience trained as April was.

Edited February 2, 2011 by luvsdogs

[Gspsplease]

Something we tried with an advanced obedience class was the sit with handlers' eyes closed-- amazing how many dogs did not think that the command was real if Mum couldn't see me!

One I tried in front of a floor to ceiling mirror -- getting my dog to sit from a stand while I stood behind her and just used a hand signal.

[fuzzy82]

How exactly do you get started with this? I have issues with my dogs always wanting to come in front of me to do sits and downs, if they are too far away they will run up to me to do them, and if they are next to me they will move in front of me before doing them.

How do you start teaching them that sit means sit right where you are right now? Of course it's my fault for not doing it in different ways right from the start, I always had them right in front of me while teaching it, I just didn't think of it at the time.

[corvus]

I'm not sure what the typical way is, but I started incidentally with barriers. I wouldn't open any doors until Erik was in a down on the other side. It stretched naturally so that he was doing downs when I was still on the other side of the room. Then I started challenging him. He downs for his dinner, so each week I practised a new kind of down. It's kind of exponential. Once he got going he picked up new ones quicker and quicker.

I tried from a chair and he got it instantly. He will do one when I'm lying on the ground (ah, how handy downs are when you have an excited Vallhund trying to sit on your other dog while you're snuggling on the ground), but not up to doing one facing away from me if I'm on the ground.

Turns out his "roll over" is pretty damn fluent as well! OH signalled one yesterday when he was standing on the logs and Erik threw himself into a roll from a run, rolled partially up onto the log, then rolled off and leapt to his feet like "Ta-da!" Cracked me up. He's so cute.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

I do fake cues, eg for the start-wait-go, I will start running away from my dog and she's supposed to stay, and if she doesn't, I put her back and we do it again - a little slower... she's only supposed to go when I say "go". So I do all the body language without the verbal, sometimes I run, and sometimes I stand still and say go (she's still supposed to "go"). And haven't done this much but for stay proofing, walk round behind and then run past.... we do play a lot of chase games but she's not supposed to release herself if I put her in position.

SG also does a "lure" fake out and she will lure something that looks like what a lot of people use for down (with a treat in their hand) and she will give the verbal to do something else like stand/sit. Dog must pay attention to the verbal first. Note she doesn't say "sit" and give her signal for "down", that would be unfair.

I'm also trying to incorporate "stand" into the "sit" and "drop" mix. We've got "sit" any which way, but it's hard to get a "drop" on the "dinner mat", although we can get it out on the oval. Weird. But the idea with Change of Position (CoP) is to have enough commands that dog cannot anticipate what move is next.